CCCA and Mondaq released their annual Canadian In-House Counsel Report this week
A “stubborn lack of focus” on equality, diversity and inclusion, soaring concerns about artificial intelligence, and a growing number of lawyers moving into non-legal roles are some of the most notable findings in an annual in-house counsel report by the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association and Mondaq.
Now in its fourth year, the Canadian In-House Counsel Report surveys in-house lawyers to determine the most pressing issues impacting individual counsel and legal departments.
The 2025 report surveyed 607 respondents across the country between September and December 2024. Respondents worked in both the private and public sectors and held in-house roles ranging from chief legal officer to legal manager.
A key finding is that nearly four out of 10 Canadian legal departments do not consider equality, diversity, and inclusion a priority at their organization – a figure that has changed little from the previous year.
“We've seen this now in a few of the surveys that legal departments are not necessarily considering ED&I to be a priority within their organizations. That was last year, and we're seeing that again this year,” says Christine Staley, director of professional development at the CCCA.
“I was thinking perhaps by now we would see that needle move a bit, and so to not see it move [this year] was a bit of a takeaway for me,” Staley adds.
According to the report, nearly half (44 percent) of surveyed chief legal officers and general counsel reported that ED&I is not a priority. Some provinces shifted their stance on ED&I more than others. Sixty-two percent of British Columbia respondents, for example, reported making ED&I a priority – a 10 percent drop from last year. Ontario respondents, on the other hand, reported just a 1 percent drop from the previous year.
Large organizations with more than 5,000 staff were also more likely to make ED&I a priority (75 percent) than smaller organizations (44 percent).
For Staley, the biggest surprise from this year’s report was how highly respondents ranked AI as a challenge for in-house departments. While respondents identified work volumes and managing workloads as their biggest challenge, they reported AI as the second greatest. Respondents said the impact of advances in generative AI and rapidly developing regulations were top of mind.
“The issue of AI, and specifically generative AI, wasn’t even really a major issue that showed up on our surveys until 2024. That's the first time that it came up as being a challenge for legal departments,” Staley says. “So, from last year – [when] it's showing up for the first time – to this year being the number two challenge right across all job roles, I thought was quite striking.”
Staley says the finding drove home how prevalent AI use is now within legal departments.
The report also noted a growing trend of in-house lawyers moving on to non-legal roles. Nineteen percent of respondents said they have seen this trend – a slight increase from 2024.
According to the report, many of these lawyers have taken on roles in human resources or compliance. However, some also move into non-legal executive roles, like chief executive officer or chief operating officer positions.
The CCCA has anticipated this trend for years and has offered in-house counsel programs on business leadership and change management strategies.
“We knew it was a possibility, and we felt that in-house counsel were ideally placed to move into these these non-legal roles,” Staley adds. “So to see it come to fruition is quite nice.”
